Portable setup and grounding confusion

[aewik]

I have small portable setup, to be used incase of outage. I've been trying my best to learn how grounding and earthing works and if that applies to this small setup. Browsed the forums and watched a ton of youtube trying to sort this out. Maybe I'm just slow, but I still can't figure out what to do here.

I've simplified my setup in the attached image, skipping all the breakers and fuses, just to focus on the grounding issue.

I've got a solar charge controller, an inverter mounted on a wooden board, and a standalone battery, which I can carry inside my house incase I need to connect my router, charge my laptop or phone. It's then all connected straight to the inverter.

Everything is working just fine. But the grounding issue bothers me. Should I connect the solar charge controller and inverter to a ground rod or something similar? They both have a tiny ground lug on the chassi. Or it it safe to keep on using in the way I am without ground? The manuals of SCC and inverter doesn't really tell me much about this.

 

[MichaelK]

For something that small, a really substantial home-rated grounding system is not really needed. You could just connect this to a cold-water pipe, or other metal object sticking out of the ground. When you say "portable" do you mean only inside the house when a power outage occurs, or also going on camping trips with it? I suppose you could rig up a standard NEMA plug with only the ground wire connected between the plug and the inverter, and just plug that into the wall, which should have a functioning ground even when the power is off.

 

[aewik]

For something that small, a really substantial home-rated grounding system is not really needed. You could just connect this to a cold-water pipe, or other metal object sticking out of the ground. When you say "portable" do you mean only inside the house when a power outage occurs, or also going on camping trips with it? I suppose you could rig up a standard NEMA plug with only the ground wire connected between the plug and the inverter, and just plug that into the wall, which should have a functioning ground even when the power is off.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question!

By "portable" I only mean moving it from my garage storage to my house, to use it indoors. I have some small solar panels to refill the battery when needed, but it's never meant to be used for camping.

Your suggestion to connect it to a cold-water pipe, is that something I should be doing? Or just could, for extra safety?

I should perhaps have mentioned I'm in Sweden, Europe, incase that affects your suggestion regarding the NEMA plug thing (not sure what that is, but I'll look into it).

 

[MichaelK]

By "portable" I only mean moving it from my garage storage to my house, to use it indoors. I have some small solar panels to refill the battery when needed, but it's never meant to be used for camping.

Your suggestion to connect it to a cold-water pipe, is that something I should be doing? Or just could, for extra safety?

I should perhaps have mentioned I'm in Sweden, Europe, incase that affects your suggestion regarding the NEMA plug thing (not sure what that is, but I'll look into it).

This is what a standard American plug for a NEMA socket looks like, Hot, Neutral, and Ground (rounded bottom).


Is this what you are using in Sweden?

With no ground plug, I'd say attaching to a metal water pipe would be a good idea.

 

[aewik]

This is what a standard American plug for a NEMA socket looks like, Hot, Neutral, and Ground (rounded bottom).
View attachment 125716

Is this what you are using in Sweden?
View attachment 125717
With no ground plug, I'd say attaching to a metal water pipe would be a good idea.

Yeah correct, that's the one we are using in Sweden. Perhaps grounded in a different way here.

I'll look around the house to see what I can find to connect this to. All the incoming water (from the ground and into the house) seem to be thick plastic pipes, with some internal copper pipes connecting everything together. Could those copper pipes be used, even though they don't go down in the ground?

 

[MichaelK]

Yeah correct, that's the one we are using in Sweden. Perhaps grounded in a different way here.

I'll look around the house to see what I can find to connect this to. All the incoming water (from the ground and into the house) seem to be thick plastic pipes, with some internal copper pipes connecting everything together. Could those copper pipes be used, even though they don't go down in the ground?

I'd defer to the European electrical experts here. If the above-ground copper piping is not connected to the earth, then most likely it will NOT be a proper ground.

 

[aewik]

I'd defer to the European electrical experts here. If the above-ground copper piping is not connected to the earth, then most likely it will NOT be a proper ground.

I think I perhaps should ask a local electrician for suggestions, to be on the safe side.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply to my concerns in a kind and friendly way.

 

[12VoltInstalls]

I'd defer to the European electrical experts here. If the above-ground copper piping is not connected to the earth, then most likely it will NOT be a proper ground.

I liked your ground-only plug idea but the euro thing is not going to work that way.
The other issue is that those inverters with North American config / 120VAC are probably not N-G bonded, either, so there’s another thing to consider.

perhaps should ask a local electrician for suggestions, to be on the safe side

Yup. And post back the results.